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Primer, Shadow Project East (Original)
@*()*%@)(#*%^#)$@*)_$@(%@#)+$)#$^ ...IDENTITY SPOOF COMPLETE... ...ENCRYPTING SIGNALS... ...BOUNCING CONNECTION... ...ACCESSING ONLINE PROTOCOLS... ^$^@$%*&^#@$@$!@#$^&*%(!&@()_ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ~~ YOU ARE NOW CROSSING THE BORDER OF REALITY ~~ Please enter your IDENTIFICATION NUMBER and PASSCODE. >>>IDN: ******* >>>PASS: ************ ... ... Login Confirmed! ... HUMAN LEVEL ACCESS GRANTED ... ... ... WELCOME TO THE R E A L W O R L D ... ... ... ... Greetings, HUMAN! Your ACCOUNT AGE suggests you only recently joined REAL World! ... Do you need instructions on using this device? >No Is this your first time accessing REAL World? >No Would you like help to set up your REAL World Persona? >No Would you like to set up your Persona now? >No Okay! Setting up a default one for now! ... Done! Would you like to see these notifications again? >No Are you familiar with recent history? >No Okay! ... ... Loading History Applet... ... ... ... ... Loaded! Please turn your volume on, and welcome to Gensokyo, the Land of Illusion and Fantasy! Here in Gensokyo, this land is a paradise to humans and youkai alike! It all started back in 2065, when Yukari Yaku- %#$^ERROR DETECTED@@#%*( (@)_#DATABASE CORRUPTION IN PROGRESS%^(^ @^)_&ATTEMPTING TO RESTORE(&@@ ... ... ... &$!@CORRUPTION COMPLETE*$@% &($@ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL OF APPLET!^( )^#ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES GRANTED(#!& @&*@^(($(DETECTING INTRUSION//SYSADMIN(_#@% (%@&$LOCKING OUT INTRUSION@()$%@ @*)#$DEPLOYING COUNTERMEASURES)%#% ...... ......... ................................................... )%!!@$^(@#)_#_@#)# Welcome to Shadow Project East &$@*)^@@^#$&*)_#$%@#!~ #@&*($#!!!REWRITING HISTORY NOW!!!&()+%#^* ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... They want us to forget. Life before then. For good reason, too. There's nowhere else to go to now. This might as well be all that's left. Gensokyo. The abandoned wasteland around it. Mountains. Feral ones. The horrors beyond. If they're even still there, that is. It may just be us. There's no way to know. Well, The Gap Hag probably does. But, she's not talking. And nobody's gonna ask. This is all the research I've done on the history of our world (well okay, not exactly my research, but I happen to know an excellent contact for all this). I'm not much of a savant on the subject, but someone's gotta keep the information out there. Them, what they're teaching now, it's all garbage fed to us. Making us think they're all there ever has been, and needs to be. Making sure we can't rebuild what we had. Making sure we stay trapped in the bubble. One day, it could be safe. It's not now - that we know for sure. However, if we never knew it was safe, before all this, we may never learn it still could be, in the future. It all started 20 years ago... 2060. Life... life was good. The world was full of life, then. Wars had died down. People were happy. Medicine was incredible. Hell, it still is. At the time, however, the bleeding edge one month was in the public's hands the next. Longevity was expected to double in three years! Technology was advanced. Those self-driving cars were only just starting to get mass-produced. The age of electric vehicles was upon us. Displays were evolving into the third dimension on everything now. While oil was still plentiful, the dependency on it was finally dying, like a baby growing off the mother's teat. And space exploration... well, let's just say we had the final frontier within our grasp. Sadly, we just couldn't grab it in time. And as an Aerospace Engineer, I sure as Makai wished we did. So, how did it all end? Actually, there's no real clear answer. It sort of all just... went to slag, all at once. The first event was natural disaster. Meteors, to be exact. My colleagues in Astronomy tell me we'd never seen it coming. Machine error, they said. Big meteors, in a huge storm of them. Big enough to get through the atmosphere. To the ground. Big enough to decimate cities. Millions killed. They kicked up enough dust to choke the atmosphere with dust. Even today a haze still remains in the sky, though with time it's thinned out more and more. With the dust, widespread famine quickly erupted in 2061. Plants simply couldn't grow without enough light. Poorer countries began to starve, one by one, while rich countries began struggled to stay afloat, even with artificial lighting and other technology. Millions more died from starvation. Food prices skyrocketed. The economy of the time went unhinged. By 2062, it was in shambles. The bubble had burst. The food prices continued to climb, and so did the price of all other goods as a result. Hell was starting to break loose as the poor, starving lower classes began to riot up against the rich and elite. Some places collapsed under the starving masses. Martial law was enacted everywhere. Europe, they say, went out of control after major corruption scandals among their leaders made headlines. Governments were toppled, rebuilt, and toppled again as people struggled to find a scapegoat for their problems. The big neighbor, across the sea, got a clever idea. They had booming manufacturing economy at the time. They were growing so fast, they took the business up of lending money to other countries. Huge amounts of money. They say amounts of hundreds of trillions of Kai worth of debt shouldered by Big Neighbor. With their starving people on the brink of riots, their idea was to collect on that debt. Apparently, the debt collection was not well received. One of my contacts, a big buff of western history and culture, tells me the leaders of the time in the western nations were big, pompous idiots. Instead of sending Kai, they sent soldiers. Big Neighbor sent them back, with bigger numbers. The Last Earth War was bloody, desperate, terrible. Each side sent waves of starving masses at each other to fight, with the promise that beating the other side would get them fed. They call it the Last Earth War because after that, there'd be little left with which to make war with. The War didn't stop. There was no diplomacy left to make. Both sides were carrying a burden too great to bear with peace. Eventually, one side ran out of soldiers. Given how prosperous and populated Big Neighbor had been, it was probably not them. When one side ran out of soldiers, they began sending instead destruction. Bombs, missiles, death machines. Big Neighbor responded in kind with their own weapons. Eventually, against all logic, both sides began to up their ante. They went nuclear. Both countries began launching nukes the other one. Some of them connected, causing widespread discussion. Truly nightmarish stuff. I hear stories of people who survived those things all the time, and it makes my gut wrench. What the meteors didn't manage to do, the nukes took care of. Major cities, wiped off the earth, leaving nothing but smoking, radiated craters. Not all of them connected. The ones that didn't got blown in the atmosphere. Naturally, if you know anything about nuclear explosions, you would be aware how they generate electromagnetic pulses. With so many nukes going off in the atmosphere, electronics everywhere were fried. People were sent back a hundred years technologically. The blasts also carried fallout all over the lands, only adding to the problems the world was having. From what we've been told, our Big Neighbor won the war, and have been going on a rampage ever since. It's likely another lie fed to us, but there's no way to know for sure. They could have been just as decimated as the west was. So what happened to us? We were in the middle of the entire conflict, geographically speaking. The meteors hit us, food shortages happened, despite our technology at the time. The bombs certainly took their toll on us. Somehow, despite it all we managed to survive. A miracle, perhaps. Of course, this is what they want you to think. People were scared at the time, worried. From their deepest fears, something far worse came forth from the murky depths. They appeared. The youkai. They were powerful, and they showed it. They promised to protect us. Keep us safe from the big, bad world that was happening outside. The world, they promised, would only get worse. They showed us a wasteland, what the world was to become. That this was our fate if we ignored them. We accepted their help. Were they monsters, or gods? Nobody knew. What choice was presented? Accept, or die. The news we did get is that, with our technology degrading, people were rising up around us. Strife was breaking loose. The country was melting down, very quickly. The youkai gave us an out. We were herded into the mountains. Expansion had taken over most of the area for living space, but they picked a spot, and tore it down. Rebuilding started. As they promised, they kept the outside world from coming in. Every week the area outside our space looked more and more like a war zone, a wasteland, while our new home grew. Under the guidance of Them, our technology surged to even greater heights. The future seemed to be a reality, the past reflected on our surroundings. We called our land 'Gensokyo'. The 'land of illusion'. The Gap Hag decided on this name, but we don't know why. Like everything else come to be named by her, it seems to be some joke only she understands. Within 15 years, we had built a city. We named it Humanis. Truly, the most ironic name. Humanis is controlled by Youkai. Humans are simply the bottom rung now. We built a city. A city safe from the outside world. We built a utopia. A utopia for youkai. We built a home. A home that serves as our prison. Inside the Barrier, built around Humanis, the sun shines. The plants grow. War doesn't come from outside. Fallout doesn't affect us. Around us, is a wasteland, filled with ferals that keep others out, and us in. Beyond that, as far as we know, youkai keep anything else from coming in. Nobody who has dared try and made it past that point, past the ferals, has ever come back. We have confirmed, the country is still in great strife. Records, older than we are, that some of my sources wouldn't dare show the light of day, say this is just like ancient times repeating itself. Beyond that, what lies? Has humanity rebuilt itself? Humans are resilient creatures, more so than They want you to think. We can adapt, persevere, preserve. The Youkai don't want us to know, and they intend to keep things that way. If this hack reaches even one person though, that's still one person I can educate. Together, we can fuel the fires of rebellion. We can take humanity back. For too long, we've been under their thumb, and it's time we rebuilt ourselves, and not just our city. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's our history. An important history to know, for sure, but knowledge of the past isn't all we need to make a future. we need to understand who we are, how we live, and who our enemy is. Perhaps we should start with the last point. Perhaps the most important in understanding our struggle now. Who are the youkai? Where did they come from? How do they live? Why do they need us? I can't answer all of those questions, but I can answer some important ones, for sure. What are youkai? Let me quote the history books here. "Youkai are the gods given form by the prayers of humans, come to save us in our darkest hour." This is a load of slag, of course. You'd have to be high on Fairy Dust to believe this (As a note, Fairy Dust is NOT a 'whimsical time', trust me). Now, youkai are pretty tight-lipped about their orgins and how they operate. Even the ones I know better than anyone refuse to talk about it. However, they can be killed, so they aren't gods. The leading theory is that they're like the actual youkai of mythos, but they looks kinda like humans so that we can trust them a bit better. In fact, I'd reckon a few theories I have of my own, that they've been here all along, even before the meteors came down, and we just didn't notice! I am so sure of this, I have a couple thousand Kai riding on the theory that the Gap Hag dro- er, well, let's not attract her to come delete this, then us, so quickly. On the average, a youkai is stronger, faster, and tougher than a human is. Some kinda of youkai are much more of one or all of these. Intelligence-wise they can vary greatly. Most youkai also heal much faster than humans, some so fast you can even watch injuries completely vanish in a matter of minutes. Youkai generally don't eat or sleep. The one exception to this seems to be F.E.A.R.. What is it? F.E.A.R. is an extract that only humans have. Youkai have various methods of collecting it. Humans are required, by law, to go donate some weekly at clinics scattered around Humanis. Assuming you follow the law, of course, they take you to a machine and extract it painlessly, so I've heard (I also hear it's mentally traumatizing, depending on who you ask). A lot of them also seem to know how to get it out of your blood, in case you're like me and only donate personally to friends. Again, Youkai are very tight-lipped about this, but the most I can gather is that F.E.A.R. is some kind of drug for them. They get more powerful, the more F.E.A.R. they have. Youkai can get really jacked up on F.E.A.R., making them really powerful, but it makes them addicted. F.E.A.R. addiction is really bad slag. Regardless of whether or not they can keep up with their addiction's needs, in the end they almost always go insane. We call these Feral Youkai, and if they don't get hunted down outright after causing havoc on Humanis, they run out of the city and into the surrounding urban wasteland that surrounds Humanis. Ironically, this is the best way youkai have of keeping us inside the city. The vast majority of youkai live better than most humans do. They look down on humans, seeing them as inferior. They live high-class and only interact with humans if they're bossing them around. Again, under the guise that they're 'helping' most of the time. The easiest way to make friends with youkai is to get in good with the trouble-making kind. They aren't hard to find, given that Humanis is not a crime-free utopia like they want you to think it is. As with any less-than-legal dealing though, you wanna make sure you're dealing with the right people and know what to do, or you just might find yourself dead or mugged. Offering personal F.E.A.R. donations (which is illegal) is a pretty easy way to make friends. You wanna be careful they aren't getting addicted, too, if you wanna keep your friends. Like humans, sometimes you can just form a bond with one. A human and youkai friendship is rare and wonderful indeed. Youkai, of course, control society at large. They run businesses which provide us with everything we need to live. Humans do most of the labor, while youkai oversee everything. The biggest of them all is the massive corporation that controls the city like a government, Yakumo Industries (corp slogan: "Everywhere you need it"). Yakumo does pretty much everything, has ties to every other youkai-run buisness (which of course is basically all of them), and generally owns everything. Yakumo Industries is run by Yukari Yakumo, known as the Gap Hag by everyone who doesn't like her, which is pretty much everyone I know that doesn't work for her. Rumors persist she can manipulate time and space through gaps in reality, hence the name. Gap Hag is pretty much the de facto leader of the youkai. The only ones who don't follow her are the troublemakers I tend to make friends with. Remember, youkai are powerful, but we can't let them control us. Humanity is not doomed without them. Humanity built this city, youkai or not. We can rise above. We can live through the strife. We can make our own future. And it all starts with us. Within the cracks and crevices within the city, out of the watchful eyes of the Gap Hag, we are known as an Incident Team. We work in the shadows, creating or solving incidents that benefit humanity, and undermine Yakumo Corp and its many partners, take out threatening youkai, fuel the fires of revolution. We probably have a thousand different derogatory names in the youkai-controlled media. They spin us as destroying the future, mere criminals, a threat to humanity. But even Yakumo Corp itself hires teams like mine sometimes, to do the dirty work it can't do in public. And while it may seem counter-productive to help the Gap Hag, we can usually use it to turn it around against them. Incident Teams are made up of both humans and youkai who don't care much for oppressing humans, or just want to cause trouble for fun. Having a strong youkai helping you out can make a huge difference. For instance, Oni bring the muscle better than most any other youkai. Some youkai are good at shape-shifting, which is invaluable for infiltrating places and grabbing access where you shouldn't. Often some youkai are just real good at listening to others or finding information, or can even read minds. While these types can be risky to deal with, given they tend to have no allegiance, having a fat wallet or a good helping of F.E.A.R. can be a real good way to get what you want to know, and not get snitched. Some youkai can use magic, which has a lot of its own benefits. Humans can use magic too. Those types are much, much rarer. Magic's kinda weird. Functionally it does nothing actually impossible, but it just seems to... bend the rules of nature just enough to work. A lot of it relies on knowing how youkai work, and how they get away with doing their unnatural things. Hence, a lot of people who have the gift for it tend to also be real good at using it to ruin a youkai's day. That said, it's a sort of forbidden knowledge that they can't really explain in layman's terms. By forbidden, I also mean that it's highly, super duper illegal if you're a human that knows magic. Try not to let that discourage you, though, another magic-user on our side is another powerful force to use against Gap Hag. Another good skill to have is being good with tech. While this can mean actual machines and technology (which is where it's very, very nice to have a kappa on the payroll), this also applies to the REAL World. The REAL world is the local cyber web of Humanis. When the internet got cut off by most of the computers dying in the constant EMP barrage during the war, there wasn't really much left to rebuild it. Of course, Yakumo Corp eventually fixed that issue. The name is, again, some kind of in joke by Gap Hag. REAL Worlding is everywhere these days. Most Infotech is handheld, wireless, and will connect easy to the REAL World. Or does by default. Floor Bricks still exist, but they're tiny compared to then, though can be a lot more powerful than the handheld stuff. A little restricted but easy enough to get a hold of. Instead of screens, Infotech makes wide use of Virtual Reality. You have to cross through the Border of REALity to get connected, and you need an ID Number, which is unique to everyone (or forged, you clever hacker) and a passcode you remember just in case someone stole your DNA or something. Of course, with everything connected, that means it's also accessible to hackers. Ruin your boss's day by silently setting his REAL toaster to 'charcoal the bread', or hack your local youkai corp and steal top secret files, there's limitless possibilities when you're a REAL hacker. Some people have honed hacking to an art form. Then there's the rare ones who live and breathe it. Cybermagic is hacking with YOUR MIND. They can see the code behind the REAL World (though as I'm told, a lot of it is still nearly impossible to decipher), and they can think code at things without needing Infotech. Since minds aren't Infotech, they can bypass a lot of the requirements to use the REAL World, but the downside is they tend to stand out on the REAL World when they're actively using it. Also, they can only hack stuff they can see, whether through their eyes or a camera, and stuff they have a digital link to (like their own gear). There's almost no data on how people become Cyberwitches (or Cyberwizards), but a couple that I know have a hunch it has to do with a glitch in nano-machines that everyone has in them from birth (medical science is great! Just make sure it's not transmitting info to other things!) Of course, a revolution cannot rely on skills alone. We live in a high tech society. Secrets are no longer kept behind lock and key, but server and passcode, camera and alarm, motion-sensitive floors and webs of infrared lasers (just like in the movies!), etc etc you get the gist. But of course, for every high tech security device, there's another device created to hack it. Yes, the arms race between security and thieves has always existed, and never ends. We're always working to upgrade our arsenal. Gear can save you just as much as your gut. Of course, possibly the most important tool is your weapon. You have a weapon, right? Incident teams can expect to run into trouble at some point. It may even be the goal of their job to get in a fight, and making sure you're well-armed gives you a nice advantage. As far as melee weapons go, you can find them in any shape and size. Anything can be a club, really, if it's long and blunt. If you're looking for more refined stuff, going medieval is an option if you're strong enough. Oni have brought back the traditions of blacksmithing, so you could get all sorts of weapons now a days like axes or swords. Most of this stuff is pretty heavily restricted on the market, though. More modern, however, are guns. Guns are the real edge in any fight. Bring a big enough gun and stand far enough back, and there's not a lot that can stand in your way. Guns come in all shapes and sizes. The most basic thing you can get are tasers for self-defense. Also the only really legal thing. Tasers are great for other humans, but not so effective on most youkai. Ballistic weapons are a fair bit better, depending on what ammo you're using. They're less popular now a days, as you have to buy ammo, which is generally rare, given how tightly restricted guns are. Don't underestimate how strong a barrel full of hot lead is. Obviously, ballistics are lethal, unless you're using rubber slugs (just buy a taser instead, weirdo), however the effectiveness depends on what you're using. Buckshot isn't gonna do much against someone with armor, though it'll rip up anyone without it to shreds. Like tasers, it has reduced effectiveness on youkai unless you got a magician engraving your bullets (which is time-consuming). However, there are other ways to put some punch in your pellets. My advice? Go for explosive rounds. Sure, it's technically unethical, but you're already using a probably-illegal gun, and unless you're shooting humans (you monster), you shouldn't be worried for the youkai that's gonna kill you (or worse) anyway. What's really the rage these days is laser weapons. Solid-state laser technology has been advanced to the point where it's handheld, and very potent. We've been able to engineer synthetic rare materials for mediums, allowing easy production of highly powerful devices. Pistol-sized lasers pack as much punch as any regular ballistic pistol, while rifles focus multiple beams at once for an even deadlier shot. Lasers have proven extremely effective versus youkai, as the burn of the laser tends to throw off their regeneration. While they're certainly much more quiet to fire than a ballistic, the beams are still really, really bright, making them decidedly unstealthy to fire regardless. Naturally, they're just as restricted (if not more) than ballistic weapons. Some of them have a low-power less-lethal setting, which makes them popular with security forces. Much more convenient than ballistics, all laser weaponry operates on Universal Power Cartridges for power, which is essentially a one-size-fits-all recharging battery. A good laser rifle uses a clip of three or four Power Cartridges at once for sustained fire. Power Cartridges are cheap and reusable too, which means you don't have an excuse for carrying lots of extras. Shooting things isn't the only thing you should keep your mind on when you're running a mission. Arguably just as important than weapons is what armor you're packing. One shot can be a kill, but armor can really help with those odds. Modern day armor can be separated into three classes and three categories of protection. The three categories are Brute, Ballistic, and Energy, which protects from getting pummeled, getting shot, and getting lasered respectively. Most armor tries to compensate for two or three categories, though you can buy armor much more specialized in protecting from just one type of pain. Brute armor is usually made with heavy padding and thick-weaved material to absorb blows well and block and slow down blades. Ballistic armor is usually made to stop or 'catch' bullets. Though taking a stopped bullet can have other painful problems, at least it isn't going through you. Energy armor is designed to reduce the effectiveness of laser guns. Other popular additions for armor are anti-conductive material for blocking taser shots, and heat-dampening for sneaking around and not getting spotted by thermal sights. The first class of armor is armored clothing. It's popular for how discreet it is, though it doesn't do much for protection. Armor clothing tends to have armor weaved directly into the clothing so you can't tell the difference. Summer wear tends to be made to tear or burn away when protecting (about the only benefit to getting shot wearing this is showing off assets), winter wear tends to focus on absorbing material. The other two classes are Light and Heavy armor, which is fairly obvious to wear. Light armor is still much more protective than clothes are, but still lets you be nearly just as mobile while wearing it. Reflective Vests are really hot-ticket right now for solid protection against popular laser weapons. Heavy armor is, as the name implies, much heavier, trading mobility for superior protection. This is the armor you're putting ceramic plates in for protection, or even going as far as mil-spec full body armor. Not sick of me talking about weapons yet? If you don't want to arm yourself up (though I don't recommend it) you can also arm up your wheels. Cars and bikes are just about the same as they ever were, though these days everything runs electric and self-driving (optional). You can mod your vehicles to hold guns or armor up too, especially good if you're skilled with infotech so you can control it all wirelessly. Speaking of wireless control, there's also the option of using drones. They come in all shapes and sizes. Little tiny drones are great for spying on people, made to look like tiny spiders or mice or smaller things. A size up, and you have toys that can hold a pistol and run around firing at people, or fly around with roto copters or something and have some death from above. Drones like these are popular because you can fold them up and store them in a bag when you don't want them running. Drones can also get as large as a dog or even bigger, though at that point they might as well just be the same as vehicles but remote-control. Remember that if it's electronic, it can be hacked, so buy the best InfoTech on the market and link your stuff to it to give hackers a harder time. Make sure you also get your local hacker friend to properly crack it for you, Yakumo and such often install backdoors and other nasty things just to make sure you're keeping in line with the crowd. Technically, it's not illegal to do this! +%!&*)_%#DETECTING INTRUSION//YAKUMO.R.A.N.+_@*(~^)#@% !)_+^#@DEPLOYING COUNTERMEASURES!)+&^#@ Uh oh. I gotta wrap this up. Spent too much time drooling over weapons. There's lots of other little tips that are useful for surviving the streets. Learn to pick locks, carry a lock pick set, and if you can find one, a Skeleton Cardkey. Illegal, but useful. I also recommend a crowbar, or something that can work like one. Unending uses for them, really. You know they make folding models now. Ain't life grand? Uh, gun tips. Don't aim unless you plan to shoot. Always pack a backup. Even if you're terrible with guns, a taser on your thigh is a good deterrent to anyone who'd like to mug you. It should go without saying, but don't miss the first shot, because you might not get another one. Also, on that note, always shoot first. Don't give them a chance to see it coming either. Not everyone on the streets are friends. Plenty aren't. Most people struggling are just there to rob you, a lot more work for Yukari and also want to rob you of your freedom. Learn to tell the difference. They tend to look clueless and out of place in the world of Incident hunting. Kind of important. You can't gain friends without losing a few first. Dig up some secrets in whatever corp you work for, find someone to spill them out to. That's the easiest ticket to finding more information on who you can trust, and who you get some help fighting back with. If you find a juicy enough bit, someone might even be willing to pay for the info, and then you've got money and friends. Remember, don't trust youkai unless you trust them with your life. )#$!)_+^#COUNTERMEASURES DISABLED!~&)@!$& If ev^n one person re@ds this and j#oins the fight, !'ve succeeded. T#gether w$ can p(t an end to Y%kari's reign, and t@ke back our worl$^. Y_uka@ en$ded th@ w*rld! Yu%ar^ i_ t+e rea^o* @he m&te@rs f@l!! F$g#t ba@#! S&art @n In#ide% t)day! F%&_$~~!#(_&@^* _^@@&()!%$%^*__ERROR___^~@@$$^*(&@!~$#@%&*($ @%$*)&!~#@%))^!@$^%*$(#&^@%!~$*(%!%!)$~*%~_$~)~#*~!)!~# ~!#~!$)%)~@&%~)#$(!~$&*!)%&!#$)&~#)*~#)~#*#~!%&!~ Shutting down.... ... ... ... ... -- Category:Shadow Project East